Red Dead Redemption 2

Rockstar is the king of open world games, hell they may have even invented them. (Well at least made them popular, for more on the history of open world game check out this wiki) The original Red Dead Redemption pretty much blew everyone away, with Rockstar seamlessly taking the mechanics of Grand Theft Auto and creating a truly open world cowboy game.

Now one of the most anticipated games of the year has been released, and I’m going to start off with a warning. Red Dead Redemption 2 takes a very long time to get into. To be honest I was getting ready to give up on the game when I started a very mundane mission and began to fall in love with the game. This mission lead to a more vigorous mission and the end of chapter two.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a prequel to Red Dead Redemption. You don’t get to continue John Marston’s story instead you play the role of Arthur Morgan. Morgan is part of Dutch Van Der Linde’s gang, who after a botched heist are being tracked by the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Being on the run may not sound like fun, but it keeps you exploring new areas. The Van Der Linde gang is somehow always one good score away from freedom, and Dutch seems to be teetering on the edge of insanity.

Rockstar have not taken the easy route with Red Dead Redemption 2, nope, they’ve totally re-designed the game and added even more to it, with everything from having to keep your horse clean, to how hot or cold Morgan is, to being under or over weight, and even looking after the gangs state of affairs. There is a lot going on if you dig a little.

Of course you can probably play the game without worrying too much about these details, but look into the effects of being under or over weight and you’ll see that you’ll gain or loose health and stamina depending which side of perfect weight you fall into.

Of course as far as gameplay goes, this is Red Dead Redemption, so the game looks stunning, the different locations are varied massively and game play is seamless. Cover shooting and dead eye still control those messy situations where gun play is the only way forward, and missions are varied enough to keep you interested.

Of course, with a massive map, a lot of time, an awful lot of time, will be spent travelling to and from missions, giving you ample time for random encounters, or to just explore, hunt or take photos.

Once you get into it, Red Dead Redemption is the one game this crowded holiday season that you will want to keep going back to. And this even without the release of multiplayer mode yet.